Cléo from 5 to 7 – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #73 (part of the “4 By Agnès Varda” Box Set) (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

December 25, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment

A wonderful film that is simply a pure Varda masterpiece! Agnès Varda’s “Cléo from 5 to 7″ captures morality, despair and enlightenment in addition to capturing the beauty of Paris in real-time. There is so many layers within the main character but also the actual film itself. Well-acted, well-written and breathtaking cinematography, this film is worth watching and the box set “4 by Agnès Varda” is definitely worth owning! Highly recommended!

TITLE: Cléo from 5 to 7 – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #73 (part of the “4 By Agnès Varda” Box Set)

DURATION: 89 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Black and White/Color, 1:66:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural in French with Optional English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: 2007

Written and Directed by Agnès Varda

Producer: Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti

Original Music by Michel Legrand

Cinematography by Paul Bonis, Alain Levent, Jean Rabier

Edited by Pascale Laverriere, Janine Verneau

Production Design by Jean-Francois Adam, Bernard Evein, Edith Tertza

Art Direction by Bernard Evein

Costume Design by Alyette Samazeuilh

Starring:

Corinne Marchand as Florence “Cleo” Victoire

Antoine Bourseiller as Antoine

Dominique Davray as Angele

Dorothee Blank as Dorothee

Michel Legrand as Bob, the Pianist

Jose Luis de Villalonga as the Lover

Loyen Payen as Irma, la cartomancienne

Serge Korber as Plumitif

Jean-Claude Brialy as L’infirmier

Raymond Cauchetier as Raoul, le projectionniste

Jean Champion as Le Patron du Cafe

Eddie Constantine as L’arroseur

Georges de Beauregard as Le conducteur du corbillard et de l’ambulance

Daniele Delorme as La vendeuse de fleurs

Fernande Engler as La fille au cafe

Sami Frey as Le Croque-mort

Jean-Luc Godard as L’homme aux lunettes noires

Anna Karina as anna, la jeune fille blonde

Yves Robert as Le venduer de mouchoirs

Alan Scott as Le marin

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Agnès Varda, a director known for her role in the Rive Gauche (Left Bank Cinema) movement (filmmakers associated with the French New Wave but the directors had different political perspectives – for a more detailed understanding, please click here), began working on her seventh indie film in 1961 titled “Cleo from 5 to 7″ (aka “Cléo de 5 à 7″).

A film which Varda has said is a “portrait of a woman onto a documentary about Paris but it is also a documentary about a woman and a sketch of Paris”. Personally, I call it a significant Varda masterpiece.

The film was released in 1962 and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and won the “Critics Award” in 1963 from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. Having received a LD and DVD release from “The Criterion Collection”, the film is now bundled with Agnes Varda’s DVD box set “4 by Agnes Varda” which includes three other films: Varda’s first film “La Pointe-Courte” (1954), “Le bonheur” (1965, “Happiness”) and “Sans toit ni loi” (1985, “Vagabond”).

“Cléo from 5 to 7″ revolves around a pop singer named Florence”Cléo” Victoire (played by Corinne Marchand) and her life on June 22nd from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Cléo is awaiting her biopsy results from her doctor at the end of the day and is worried that she may have cancer and at the beginning of the film, when she goes to visit a fortune teller, the fortune teller sees death in the tarot cards dealt to Cléo. Of course, for Cléo, this is all that she needs to know and is resigned that her young life is now over and that she is going to die. Throughout the film, we see how Cléo deals with her death and how she deals with the thought of mortality as the two hours of her life (between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m – actually technically its between 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m..), she feels nothing but solitude and despair. That is until she meets Antoine (played by Antoine Bourseiller), a character that I best not talk about in full detail since he plays a pivotal role in the film and can easily spoil the story.

We see Cléo now going through the shock from her visit to the fortune teller of trying to accept the bad news but it proves to be hard. Her assistant Angele (played by Dominique Davray) tries to help her deal with the situation and try to give her confidence but most importantly, to let her know that she shouldn’t talk about it with other people and to keep it to herself. So, we see how Cléo behaves around people close to her, who don’t understand why she is a bit emotional. From her older boyfriend, her pianist and lyricist. She doesn’t want to die but yet everyone around her lives their lives as if nothing is wrong and she starts to see her life differently.

Cléo leaves her apartment and thus the adventure begins as she walks through Paris and seeing life for herself, the people around her and visiting her good friend Dorothee (played by Dorothee Blank) who is a woman who freely takes her clothes off for art students for money and lives life the way she wants to with no inhibitions. But it’s that time alone that she needs until she needs to meet with her doctor and get the results of her biopsy.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Cléo from 5 to 7″ is presented in black and white (1:66:1 aspect ratio). The film looks absolutely beautiful with blacks that are nice and deeps, whites and grays look remarkable and The Criterion Collection really doing a great job in eliminating a lot of the dust and scratches from this older film.

The new digital transfer was supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda and according to Criterion, the digital transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive made from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using their MTI Digital Restoration System.

As for the audio, the film is presented in monaural. According to Criterion, the soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 signal is directed to the center channel and for this film, I preferred to set my home theater receiver to stereo on all channels to have a more immersive soundtrack. Audio is in French with optional English subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Cléo from 5 to 7″ comes with the following special features:

Remembrances - (35:59) A wonderful documentary from 2005 featuring Agnès Varda and reuniting cast and crew from “Cléo from 5 to 7″ over 40 years later and revisiting the areas of where the film was shot, also images from the making of the film and more. From why the first few minutes features color and black and white images, to the casting of the characters and interviews with the cast 40-years-later and what they remember about filming certain scenes and working with Varda.
Hans Baldung Grien - German painter Hans Baldung Grien was an influence to Agnès Varda that his postcards and paintings were featured in the film. Using your remote, the viewers can cycle through various artworks.
Madonna and Agnes – (2:24) A short clip taken from the 1993 French television special “Madonna, c’est Madonna” hosted by Christophe Deschavannes. Agnès Varda and Madonna discussing Madonna wanting to remake “Cléo from 5 to 7″.
Cléo‘s Real Path Through Paris – (9:17) A short film from 2005 by Pierre-William Glenn as he straps a camera on him while riding a motorcycle and retracing the steps Cleo took through Paris from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Les Fiances Du Pont MacDonald – (4:54) The short silent film featured in “Cléo from 5 to 7″ starring Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Eddie Constantine and many more. Also, including another video (2:57) featuring director Agnès Varda discussing the making of the short silent film and why she included it on “Cléo from 5 to 7″.
L’Opera Mouffe – (16:05) A short film by Agnès Varda from 1958. Filmed indoor and outdoor from the rue Mouffetard and featuring composer Georges Delerue, inspired by Kurt Weill’s music from “The Threepenny Opera”. Visually creative!
Trailer – (2:04) The original theatrical trailer of “Cléo from 5 to 7″.

Fantastic! That is my feeling of “Cléo from 5 to 7″ after watching it. Agnès Varda does a remarkable job of writing and directing a film that chronicles a woman’s life and to see her go through these wide range of emotions and the feeling of existentialism and looking at her life around the people around her.

In the beginning, we see how Cléo truly is. A popstar who shows how vain of a woman she can be. When she looks at the mirror and tells herself that “As long as I’m beautiful, I’m even more alive than the others”, one can immediately look at Cléo and see the lifestyle she has lived. Frivolous and possibly a lifestyle of a queen, buying whatever she wants and reacting to when she hears her music and letting people know that is her on the radio. But it’s when we see those layers of Cléo stripped down. She is now in despair and has left that life that she has lived temporarily to be alone and to get the biopsy results. Giving her a chance to see life differently when faced with her own mortality.

The film has style, it has grace, we see Cléo going through many areas of Paris, driving through Paris as we are like a passenger as we watch the scenery from the front window and of course, the film is also known for its inclusion of the short silent film “Les fiances du pont Macdonald” which feature a newly married Jean-Luc Godard, actress Anna Karina, Georges de Beauregard, Jean-Claude Brialy, Daniele Delorme, Alan Scott, Eddie Constantine and many other popular celebrities and directors from the French New Wave.

The editing is creative and artistic, in fact the inclusion of art in the film is a beautiful touch to a film that has so many enjoyable things going for it. But most importantly is how Varda was keen on detail. Wherever there is a clock (may it be in various restaurants, cafe’s to clocks out in the middle of the stress of Paris, we see the time). Varda and crew were determined to capture the clock at the time Cléo is near it and that the time coincides with what is happening with the film.

Speaking of Paris, what I loved about the film is how we see Cléo in various areas around Paris, the artwork of Hans Baldung Grien (which prior to the film, I always found his artwork hauntingly creepy) and to make a comparison of what I enjoyed about Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maud” from 1969 about using the camera and driving through Paris and the viewer is like the passenger, Varda uses this technique many years prior to the film and I just love seeing that incorporated if the scenery is worth capturing and in this case, cinematography in this instance and also of Cléo walking around Paris was well-done!

“Cléo from 5 to 7″ captures Paris in the early 1960′s. A lot of the locations we see in the film are no longer and personally, I don’t know if a film can be shot today with as much access or detail or in such a way as Agnès Varda was able to capture Corinne Marchand walking around in public with not much worry about rabid fans trying to get into the film. You see eyes looking straight at the camera (in fact, these people are probably wondering why they were being filmed) but it captures the time of people in Paris so innocently, and its a shame that some of the locations shot are no longer around. The cinematography is breathtaking and again, the editing is well-done! The film is literally a visual time capsule of Paris from yesteryear.

The DVD release is no slouch as there are so many special features included such as the reuniting of the characters of the film nearly 44-years later and also the inclusion of Agnès Varda’s short film “L’opera Mouffe” from 1958 and revisiting Paris via the path Cléo took over 40-years later.

Such a beautiful and amazing film in so many levels, “Cléo from 5 to 7″ is absolutely fantastic and definitely recommend the viewing of this film and the purchase of “4 by Agnès Varda” DVD boxset. It’s definitely a Criterion Collection set worth owning!

alphaville – The Criterion Collection #25 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

November 13, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment

French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard’s classic sci-fi film “Alphaville” may not sport the special effects or violence that we have seen in modern sci-fi films, but “alphaville” is quite enjoyable courtesy of the visual imagery, campiness and fun, noir-ish storyline.

TITLE: alphavile – The Criterion Collection #25

DURATION: 99 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital Mono, Black and White, 1:33:1, French with optional English subtitles

COMPANY: The Criterion Collection/Janus Films/Home Vision Cinema

RELEASED: 1998

Written and Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Poetry “Capitale de la douleur” by Paul Eluard

Produced by Andre Michelin

Music by Paul Misraki

Cinematography by Raoul Coutard

Edited by Agnes Guillernot

Production Design by Pierre Guffroy

Production Management by Philippe Dussart

Starring:

Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution

Anna Karina as Natacha von Braun

Akim Tamiroff as Henri Dickson

Howard Vernon as Prof. Leonard Nosferatu

Jean-Louis Comolli as Prof. Jeckell

Jean-Andre Fieschi as Prof. Heckell

A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard’s irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, ona mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60, Criterion’s edition of this seminal film features a new digital transfer.

From world renown director Jean-Luc Goddard (“Breathless”, “Pierrot Le Fou”, “Masculin, feminin”, “Two or Thre Things I Know About Her”), one of the founding members of the French New Wave came the 1965 sci-fi film known as “alphaville” (Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution). Alphaville is a city from another world in which a supercomputer known as Alpha 60 is a dictator in control of the people and the area as it is a film that is a precursor to “big brother cameras” and technology of today. In this city, people must obey the rules as free thought, love, poetry and emotions are eliminated.

In fact, the world of Alphaville is quite interesting because rules include people not allowed to use the word “why” and replace it with the word “because”, a bible is kept in each hotel room (which is more or less a dictionary with updated words of not to say) and anyone found breaking these rules will be executed. So, due to the power of Alpha 60, the people of alphaville have been reconditioned and brainwashed.

Enter an agent from “The Outlands” (outside of Alphaville which is literally the city next to it but is called another universe) named Lemmy Caution (played by Eddie Constantine, “Europa”, “The Long Good Friday”, “Tokyo no Kyujitsu”) who is given a mission: To find a missing agent named Henry Dickson and capture and kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun (played by Howard Vernon).

So, Lemmy infiltrates Alphaville posing as a journalist named Ivan Johnson from the outlands who works for the publication Figaro-Pravda in which he starts taking pictures of the people around Alphaville which doesn’t provoke any reaction from the people at Alphaville (because emotion is not supposed to be displayed by those who live there).

Immediately when he makes it to his room, he realizes that these people have been programmed so well that their minds work in interesting ways. For example, his first day is in a hotel and the woman (which has a title of a seductress, third class) that escorts him to his room is only programmed to please and do whatever he wants. Almost like a mindless zombie, she is programmed to asked the same questions over and over.

He immediately meets Professor von Braun’s daughter, Alpha 60 programmer Natacha von Braun (played by Anna Karina, “Pierrot le fou”, “Une femme est une femme”, “Cle de 5 a 7″), a woman assigned to stay close to Mr. Johnson, thinking that he’s in town for a festival (which many people from the Outlands come to Alphaville to attend). And not long after their meeting, Natacha is surprised by the questions that Johnson asks her like if she has ever been in love, a concept that she does not understand.

So, as Lemmy continues his mission to find the missing agent and to capture or destroy Alpha 60, he becomes smitten with Natacha as he tries to bring emotions out of her that she is not familiar with. But the more he goes forward into his mission, he is also under the watchful eye of Alpha 60.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“alphaville” is presented in the aspect ratio of 1:33:1 and in black and white. At the time of this DVD pressing, the digital transfer was created from a 35mm fine grain master made from the original negative. This is before newer technology was able to eliminate a lot of dust particles, scratches, etc. But overall, it doesn’t deter from the viewability of this classic film. What my eyes were focusing a lot in the film is how Godard constructs the shot. From beautiful locations, elevators and stairwells, there is a sense of style that you see in those shots that I found to be wonderful. But also using scenes that is reminiscent of an Ozu style as the actors look directly at the camera straight on while conversing with another person.

As for audio, the French audio is presented in Dolby Digital mono. The sound was mastered from the 35mm magnetic soundtrack. For the most part, dialogue is understandable and Alpha 60′s voice is loud, repetitive and annoying. But my preference in watching this film was having my receiver set with stereo on all channels despite the soundtrack being Dolby Digital mono as I wanted to utilize the rear surrounds to incorporate the mono audio track.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“alphaville” contains no special features but a short essay by Andrew Sarris (film critic for the New York Observer) is included in the insert.

“alphaville” was an interesting film as it was a film that has been interpreted differently by many people who have seen it. Was it a statement about the suppression of individuality? Was it a statement of early corporate control on a society?

Although the film is a sci-fi film with film noir undertones, it’s not a film to think of out of space or typical sci-fi scenery. Nor should one expect special effects. “Alphaville” does take place in an alternate world and although the supercomputer is more or less a light inside a ventilation vent in the film, it’s not more about the scenery but what has happened to humanity in “Alphaville”. Was the society void of emotion done for the sake of a statement towards the US? The War? Against art? Against love?

Needless to say, the film is one of those films you rewatch a few times and I have found myself with a new perspective each time of what I felt about the film. But some people may feel the film goes right over their heads. And if it does, you won’t be alone as the film opened at the New York Film Festival and according to film critic Andrew Sarris, the audience were baffled by the shift in tone. And he talks about the shift of futurism to private-eye mannerisms and I can definitely see that. The film is a mixed bag of incorporating various themes.

But if you look at the film and what it was accomplishing back in 1965, can you imagine how a sci-fi film about a computerized dictator would be somewhat of a precursor to films such as evil computers such as HAL2000 (“2001″), “Terminator” and sure, it may be campy compared to today’s film but the fact that a film like this was created back then with an evil supercomputer in mind is quite fascinating.

As mentioned earlier, there are some awesome looking scenes such as Lemmy and Natacha coming down from the stairs or even riding the elevator. I love how those scenes were shot. Probably the most interesting parts of the film is during the execution of those who showcased their emotions to the public and now are to be executed for shedding a tear. As one man who cried for the death of his child, we see him assassinated for displaying emotions. As he falls, a group of female swimmers collect his body. Very interesting scenes in the film during that execution scene but at the same time, for people being killed by gun shots, you would hope to see Godard try to add some realism or even blood on their clothing.

Especially during the fighting and gun shot scenes, for the most part…”Alphaville” suffers from the action scenes looking quite campy. In one scene, a group of thugs circle around Lemmy in an elevator and you see his body moving from all sides as if he was getting the tar beat out of him. But of course, Lemmy suffers no damage at all.

But I understand that the goal of the film was not on special effects but its storyline and its characters. Eddie Constantine did a wonderful job as Lemmy Caution. He has that nonchalant, brute, no-nonsense persona that I felt was cool and of course, Godard’s wife/actress Anna Karina as Natacha von Braun. She was absolutely adorable and very beautiful in this film.

Overall, I have to admit that “alphaville” was quite intriguing and enjoyable. Was it one of Godard’s masterpiece films? Not really. And the fact that this is one of the few Criterion Collection DVD’s that is literally a barebones release, I know some people may find that unacceptable for Criterion releases. But the fact that you can find this DVD quite cheap online these days is a plus and if you are a Godard fan, it’s worth checking out and worth having in your collection.

With interesting cut scenes, audio, imagery and solid acting from Constantine and Karina, “Alphaville” is one of those classic sci-fi, noir films that will definitely entertain you.